In a broadband wireless communications network that implements time division duplexing (TDD), it may be possible to configure different cells with different TDD configurations. In some cases, a small cell such as a picocell may be configured with a different TDD configuration than that of a macrocell within or near which the small cell is located. Further, according to some implementations, the TDD configuration for the macrocell may be static while the small cell TDD configuration may be dynamically selected based on traffic conditions within the small cell. For example, in a Time-Division Long-Term Evolution (TD-LTE) wireless network (also sometimes referred to as an LTE TDD wireless network), an evolved node B (eNB) serving a picocell may dynamically select a TDD configuration for the picocell based on the relative amounts of uplink (UL) and downlink (DL) traffic in the picocell.
If the TDD configurations of any two particular cells differ, then the transmission directions within those respective cells may differ during some sub-frames. Namely, during some sub-frames, UL transmissions may be performed in one cell while DL transmissions are performed in the other cell. In the case of a macrocell implementing a TDD configuration that differs from the TDD configuration of a small cell within or near the macrocell, the opposite transmission directions during such sub-frames may tend to cause mutual interference between the macrocell and the small cell if the macrocell and the small cell use adjacent respective frequency channels. Particularly, DL transmissions in the macrocell may tend to interfere with UL transmissions in the small cell, and DL transmissions in the small cell may tend to interfere with UL transmissions in the macrocell.